Machines have heretofore been developed and utilized for wrapping battery plates in a sheet of sealable separator material and then sealing the two opposed overlapping edges of the sheet material to form an enclosing pouch or envelope open at the top end of the battery plate. See for example the disclosures of U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,341 to Schoichiro, U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,732 to Eberle, and pending application Ser. No. 815,814 filed July 15, 1977 by Robert D. Simonton and assigned to the assignee of this invention.
These machines achieved a folding of the web or sheet of sealable separator material around the battery plate by suspending a sheet in front of a folding slot hand then passing the battery plate horizontally through the slot to effect the wrapping of the web around the battery plate. As the wrapped plate emerges from the slot, grasping members, similar to tongs, engage the leading edge of the sheet enfolded battery plate and hold the sheet in firm alignment with the plate as the wrapped plate continues along the horizontal path and the enfolding sheet is subjected to a sealing operation on the overlapping edges of the sealable separator material which projects laterally beyond the sides of the enfolded battery plate.
The speed of operation of such prior art machines is obviously a function of the speed of the reciprocating movements of the injector and extractor shuttle mechanisms, which movements are in timed relationship. The above mentioned prior art machines suffered a disadvantage in that the extractor shuttle had to be stopped for an instant in its remote position relative to the folding aperture in order to release the grasping tongs from the wrapped plate and permit the plate to drop out of the path of the grasping mechanism so that it could move toward the folding slot to begin another cycle of operation. Obviously, if this momentary hesitation in the movement of the extractor mechanism could be eliminated, the speed of the battery plate wrapping operation could be significantly increased.